SharePoint 2010 Migration: Attach Database and Upgrade Methodology

 

You may run across scenarios where you would like to create an entirely new infrastructure for the SharePoint 2010 instances. In such scenarios, the Attach Database and Upgrade method can be applied.

The Database upgrade method upgrades only the content of the database and does not upgrades any of the settings on the new SharePoint 2010 Server.

 

The complete process of Database Attach and upgrade can be accomplished using the following steps:

1) Take a backup of the Content database of the SharePoint 2007 Server. you should take the backup of the following:

• All the Content databases of SharePoint 2007 Sites which needs to be migrated to the SharePoint 2010
• If your SharePoint 2007 sites uses some additional database and you want these custom Databases to be migrated to the new server, then you should take a backup of these database as well.
• Shared Services Database
• Search Database
• My Sites Database

Upgrading SharePoint 2007 32 Bit to SharePoint 2010

By default, the SharePoint 2010 is available only in 64 bit  mode. To be able to upgrade the SharePoint 2007 32 bit to SharePoint 2010, you will first need to upgrade your SharePoint 2007 32 bit to SharePoint 2007 64 bit if you are interested in migrating only some of the SharePoint sites.

The stsadm command for taking a backup of a site

stsadm –o backup –url <url of the SharePoint 2007 site> –filename <Path and file name of the backup file>

you can also use –force switch to force the backup process in case of any issues.

If you want to migrate the entire Farm, you can take a backup of the entire 32 bit farm and restore it in SharePoint 2007 64 bit.

you can use the stsadm command to backup the entire farm

stsadm -o backup -directory <\\server name\folder name> -backupmethod full

you can take a backup of the SharePoint 32 bit site and restore it on a 64 bit site.

Feasibility Study of SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 migration

if your SharePoint 2007 server does not have sp2, then you will need to update the SP2 on the SharePoint box before you evaluate the feasibility of upgrading to SharePoint 2010.

Backup Database in SQL Server 2008

The process of taking a backup of the database in SQL Server 2008 is as follows:

1) Start the SQL Server Management studio

2) Right click on the Database that needs to be backed up

3) Select Backup

4) Provide a valid path to save the backup.

Restore SharePoint 2007 32 bit backup to SharePoint 2007 64 bit backup

you can restore a SharePoint backup of a SharePoint Site using the following stsadm command

stsadm –o restore –url <url of web application> –filename <Full path of the backup file>

Pre Upgrade Check on SharePoint 2007 Site

you can run the stsadm command on the SharePoint 2007 server to verify the upgrade readiness for the sites in the SharePoint Server. if the installation is a farm installation, the command should be run on the SharePoint box hosting the “Central Administration”

 

This command was first introduced with wss 3.0 sp2. This command is intended to run a set of rules that will assist the administrators to prepare the existing sharepoint 2007 installation to a future sharepoint 2010 version.

The parameter –rulefiles takes a valid rule file and is an optional parameter. It requires a quoted, delimited (comma or semicolon) list of rule file names. By default this command is run for all the available rule files. The rule files are available in the 12 hive\config\preupgradecheck folder.

The parameter –listrulefiles lists all rule files without executing the check routine. This is also an optional parameter.

The parameter –localonly is a required parameter and checks the local server with the rules marked as local only and evaluates them.

It also generates a detailed html report in the logs folder

You can check the microsoft knowledgebase for corrective actions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960577

For additional details on this you can check my blog http://sharepointtech.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/sharepoint-2010-migration-part-i/

Add Pre Checks before attaching this backup on the new SharePoint 2010 site

A SharePoint Site may contain one or more of the following additional components:

• Web Parts
• Custom Assemblies
• Custom Site Definitions
• Custom Features
• Custom Master pages
• InfoPath Forms
• Modified Web.Config
• Custom Workflows

All such items needs to be manually migrated and applied on the SharePoint 2010 Website.

These items needs to be applied before attaching the SharePoint Database.

To understand the feasibility and custom items required for migrating, you can use the PowerShell Command Test-SpContentDatabase.

Test-SPContentDatabase –Name <database name> -WebApplication <Web application URL> [-ServerInstance <ServerInstanceName>] [-DatabaseCredentials <Domain\username>]

If there is any Pre requisite item that needs to be applied on the server before the database is attached then you will need to apply all such items to the candidate web application.

Once these checks are applied then you can attach the database.

Attaching Database in case there are multiple content database in SharePoint 2007 Site

If the SharePoint 2007 site contains multiple databases, then the order of attaching the content database is as follows:

1. The Content DB containing the root site collection is always applied first.
2. The other content DBs can be applied in any order.

 

Attach the Content DB To SharePoint 2010 Application

The process of attaching the content DBs in the SharePoint 2010 Web Application should be done through STSADM tool. For Attaching the Content DB to a SharePoint 2010 Web application, you should perform the tasks in the following order:

1. Restore the Content DBs to New SQL Server Instance
2. Delete the existing content DB of the Web application
3. Attach the Content DB of the Root Site collection
4. Attach the Content DB of other Site / Site Collections if any
5. perform an iisreset
6. Open the SharePoint 2010 Web Application
7. Perform the Visual upgrade to get the SharePoint 2010 Look and Feel

Upgrade MySite

To upgrade the MySite to SharePoint 2010, you should perform the following activities

1. Configure the My sites in SharePoint 2010
2. Perform the Content DB attachment method as discussed earlier.

Indexing Very Large Files in SharePoint 2010

 The limitation of indexing Files greater than 16 MB in size still exists in SharePoint 2010. The limitation was enforced to avoid network clogging and improve SharePoint performance.

In all such scenarios, where the file format is Compatible to SharePoint and the size of the file is larger than the max threshold size, the indexer is able to index the metadata of the file. however, the content of the file is not indexed.

For all files which are smaller than 16 MB in size and the file format is compatible to SharePoint, the content as well as the metadata of the file is indexed.

The major problem is that in SharePoint 2007, all such scenarios where the File Size was greater than 16 MB, were logged in as warning in the Crawl logs. However, there is no such warning generated in case of SharePoint 2010 and hence it is very difficult to understand the issue.

This whole behavior is guided by two registry values:

• MaxDownloadSize :  This specifies the maximum size of the document text that is filtered.
• MaxGrowthFactor : This specified how large the output of the index filter can be.

 

By default , the MaxDownloadSize is 16 MB and the MaxGrowthFactor is 4 MB in Size. This basically implies that:

• The maximum size when you index file share will be 16 * 6 = 64 MB
• The maximum size when you index document on the web site will be 16 MB.

 

Before SharePoint 2010, this settings were modified by modifying the registry information at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE –> Microsoft –> Office Server -> 12.0 –> Search –> Global –> Gathering Manager

However for some reasons these settings don’t persist when applied in SharePoint 2010 environment. you need to alter the settings using the PowerShell.

 

The max value supported by “MaxDownloadSize” is 2 GB.

Execute VSeWSS Projects in Visual Studio 2010

 

The solutions developed in VSeWSS extensions are not directly portable into Visual Studio 2010.

To Run the VSeWSS Projects in Visual Studio 2010, an import tool has been released in MSDN which helps in executing the VseWSS Projects. This tool gets installed as a Visual Studio 2010 add in and provides a new SharePoint Project Template .

The tool is available at the following location:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/VSeWSSImport

 

All the discussions related with this tool is available at

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/VSeWSSImport/Thread/List.aspx

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SharePoint 2010 Recycle Bin

The recycle bin in SharePoint is synonymous to Recycle bin in windows and helps the users in recovering files which have been deleted accidentally.

The files in the recycle bin can either be recovered or can be deleted after a pre defined period of time.

Recycle Bin Stages

SharePoint supports two levels of Recycle bin. The initial or First level Recycle bin comes in picture when the user deletes an item from a list. Once the item is deleted again from the First level of Recycle bin it moves to the second stage of Recycle bin.

Access Restrictions on Recycle Bin

The restoration access on the First Stage Recycle Bin is available to all the site users. However, restoration access on the second stage Recycle Bin is available only to the Site Collection Administrators.

Number of Recycle Bin

There is one First Stage recycle bin available per site in a site collection. However, there is only one Second Stage Recycle Bin available per Site Collection.

Item not available in Recycle Bin

If you try to find an item in the recycle bin and fail to locate it then you need to verify the following :

1. The contents in the recycle bin are driven by the access control. The user who has deleted the content will be able to see the content in the recycle bin. Other users will not be able to see the items in the recycle bin.

2. If you have deleted a top level item like a folder or a list, and try to find a document available at an inner location, then the item will not be viewable. By default the Recycle bin shows the top level content and does not have the capability to show the items in a tree structure or drill down mode.

3. The contents in the recycle bin contains only the items within the site. A deleted site is outside the scope of the Recycle bin and is not available for deletion.

4. The recycle bin contains the items for a pre defined period which can be set from the Web Application –> General Settings. if the thresh hold is crossed, the item is deleted permanently.

Configure Recycle Bin

Recycle Bin can be configured from the central administration.

1. Click on Manage Web Applications

2. Select the Web Application for which the recycle bin configuration needs to be configured.

3. Click on General Settings in the Ribbon –> General Settings from the drop down as well.

Remove “Recycle Bin” Link from SharePoint Site

1. Open the sharepoint Designer

2. Check out the master page

3. Open the master page in SharePoint Designer

4. Find the </Head> tag

5. Add the following text above the <HEAD> tag.

<style>                                                                 

.s4-specialNavLinkList 

{  

    display:none !important; 

  } 

</style> 

6. Check in the master page

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